Projects · Frant Road

Frant Road

The house had been beautifully developed inside. Now it was time for the outside to sing too: a welcoming approach, the extra space and storage the family needed, and the beginnings of a garden to bring it all together.

An overall plan allowed the work to unfold in stages, each adding something of its own and together becoming more than the sum of their parts.

Masterplanning · Architectural design · Planning and consents · Garden and landscape · Phased delivery

Buildings and driveway completed · Further garden phases proposed

Planning and permissions ↓

A different arrival. The same home.

Parking was part of the brief, but it did not need to dominate the front of the house. Defined surfaces, planted edges and a clearer route to the door give the approach a different feel.

Before: parked cars crowd the uneven front drive at Frant Road, with overgrown planting beside the approach.
Before — an unresolved approach, dominated by parking and worn surfaces.
After: mature planting frames the redesigned driveway and entrance to the same home.
After — a redesigned driveway and mature planted frontage give the house room to breathe.

The overall design

Begin with the whole property

The masterplan looked from the road to the far end of the garden. It brought parking, the garage, courtyard and store into the same plan as the garden room and places to sit outside.

Thinking this through at the start left room for later terraces, paths, water and planting. Cost planning and separate work packages meant the owners could tackle the work in manageable stages.

Original February 2021 masterplan connecting the driveway, garage, courtyard, garden spaces and garden room across the whole property.
The original masterplan, February 2021. An early design framework, with details developed through subsequent phases. View the plan →

A sequence of connected changes

  1. The PodA garden room and den, with its own terrace.
  2. Garage and side spacesA garage, storage and easier movement around the house.
  3. The front driveSurfaces, planting and a more welcoming arrival.
  4. The garden’s next chaptersProposals for paths, dining, a pergola, pond and planting.

Planning and permissions

Establish the route before building

A Lawful Development Certificate, obtained in May 2021, confirmed that the proposed garden room, garden store, garage and driveway works qualified as permitted development.

The connection to the road needed a separate highway approval. Consent to resurface the existing vehicle crossover was granted in June 2022.

The first building phase

The Pod: another place for family life

The garden room and den created a destination at the far end of the garden. Glazed doors open onto a timber terrace, bringing the building and its planted setting together.

We planned the foundations, timber building and deck as separate stages, working with specialist collaborators and overseeing how the parts came together.

The Pod became a place for the teenagers to spend time with friends and for the family to gather.

The timber garden room opens onto its deck beside established planting.

Garage and side works

Make the practical parts belong

The garage was designed as an addition to the house, with its proportions and detailing considered alongside the existing building. The wider plan also addressed storage, the courtyard and movement around the side of the property.

The garage and side works had their own drawings and construction phase. Getting these practical spaces right was as much a part of the design as the garden room and planting.

The new garage, entrance steps, planted frontage and driveway brought together at Frant Road.

The driveway phase

Carry the design all the way to the road

The driveway needed to accommodate parking and make the walk to the front door clear and comfortable. Levels, retaining walls, entrance steps and drainage were worked out alongside the paving and planting.

The trees and planted edges help the parking sit within the garden. The different surfaces define where to drive, park and walk, without turning the whole frontage into a car park.

The completed driveway looking towards the road, with parking framed by trees and planting.
The completed driveway, looking towards the road.
The parking area at night, with trees illuminated from below and low lights across the driveway.
After dark, lighting picks out the trees and the edge of the parking area.

Later garden phases

A plan that can keep developing

The buildings and driveway are complete. The later garden designs remain proposals: a path and dining terrace, a pergola and pond, with further planting and screening.

These would give the Pod a fuller garden setting and create more places to sit, eat and enjoy being outside.